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Seniors salvage Bin weekend

By Daily Bruin Staff

April 7, 1996 9:00 p.m.

Sunday, April 7, 1996

W. tennis comes back from Stanford loss to win 5-4 home match
against BearsBy Hye Kwon

Daily Bruin Staff

It was senior day at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on Saturday
afternoon, when the sixth-ranked UCLA women’s tennis team took on
California. And appropriately enough, the three seniors playing the
last home match of their careers led UCLA to a tough 5-4 win over
the Bears.

After losing to No. 2 Stanford on Friday, a loss to the Bears
could have been disastrous. But Keri Phebus, Paige Yaroshuk and
Anicia Mendez salvaged the weekend by accounting for all five
points accumulated by the team.

Going into doubles play, the dual-match score was knotted at
three matches each. Phebus defeated Stephanie Tibbits 6-3, 6-3, and
Yaroshuk came out victorious against Amanda Augustus 6-4, 4-6, 6-0.
But it was Mendez who appeared most impressive while defeating
Marisa Maclennan 6-0, 6-0.

With the underclassmen dropping all three singles matches and
continuing to struggle in the doubles, the seniors rose to the
occasion once again to record the two doubles victories needed for
the team win. Phebus and Yaroshuk beat California’s freshmen duo of
Francesca La’O and Augustus 6-3, 6-1, after Mendez combined with
Kelly Rudolph to record the 6-3, 6-3 win against Maclennan and
Kristina Donehew.

"I was really pleased that the seniors won the match for us,"
UCLA head coach Bill Zaima said. "There is justice after all."

The win against California ended up being crucial for UCLA in
the race for the conference championship because of the loss the
Bruins suffered against Stanford on Friday. Against the Cardinal,
the Bruins went from a position where they could have secured the
team victory in singles to being down 4-2 going into doubles.

Phebus, Rudolph and Jody Anglin all had great chances to win
their matches, but all ended up losing their matches in three sets.
At No. 4 Rudolph lost to Kim Shasby 6-7, 6-2, 6-4 and Anglin,
playing at No. 6, dropped her match by the score of 1-6, 6-1,
7-5.

Friday’s match at the No. 1 position was unusual, to say the
least, considering that Ania Bleszynski at one point won nine games
in a row. But immediately at the tail end of Bleszynski’s run,
Phebus came right back to win eight games in a row. At the end,
however, mistake-free tennis prevailed as Phebus made key unforced
errors from the baseline and service mistakes in crucial
situations.

Phebus served for the match in two different games. But both
times, she double faulted at break point and mercifully allowed
Bleszynski to escape with a 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 win.

FRED HE/Daily Bruin

Winning straight sets in both singles and doubles, senior Anicia
Mendez provided the margin in UCLA’s 5-4 victory of California in
her final home appearance. with straight sets wins in singles and
doubles.

With the underclassmen dropping all three singles matches and
continuing to struggle in the doubles, the seniors rose to the
occasion once again.

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